1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to floating storage facilities for collecting and temporarily storing produced fluids from oil and gas wells. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system including a floating storage barge that can be selectively positioned in a body of water at a preselected location.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Large amounts of crude oil and other hydrocarbon liquids are produced from subsea and other underwater formations. While in some cases it is economically feasible to transmit the produced fluids to storage facilities on land via pipelines, such pipelines are expensive, pose environmental concerns, and are often times not practical. Nonetheless, produced fluids from oil and gas wells at such locations must be temporarily stored lest production from the wells be halted.
It is known to position tankers and other typical waterborne or floatable storage and transporting vessels at preselected offshore locations, the tankers either being held in a fixed position by means of anchors or the like, or else tethered to a calm buoy that is fixed at a preselected position.
The use of tankers and other such conventional steel storage and/or transfer vessels for offshore, or at least on-water, storage of produced fluids is expensive, in the case of vessels, because of the inherent expense of the vessels. Furthermore, these conventional steel vessels and storage systems are subject to rust and corrosion, which necessitates constant maintenance, particularly when the vessels or floating storage systems are disposed in saltwater environments. A significant problem in using steel tankers as offshore storage facilities lies in the fact that the tankers are subject to mechanical fatigue limiting their effective life to about 10 to 15 years.